I’m Ending the Early Access Tier and Republishing the Gift Link Tier

TL;DR

• I originally planned to end the free Gift Link tier on December 1st and focus only on the paid Early Access tier.

• After thinking about it, I’m doing the exact opposite.

• The Early Access tier is being closed, and the Gift Link tier is coming back.

• Refunds have already been issued for every transaction.

• On December 1st: no more early access, animations, or ZIP recaps, just the same daily content posted here and on Pixiv & DeviantArt, free for everyone.

• Early Access Patrons : Please cancel your subscription. You can't join the Gift Link tier while having Early Access tier running. I’ll keep refunding any transaction until no one remains in the tier.

• Here is the link to claim the free access : https://www.patreon.com/gerhard96/redeem/4CE06

Why I Changed My Mind

On December 1st, I was supposed to stop supporting the “free” Gift Link tier and focus entirely on the “paid” Early Access tier. However, after some consideration, I made the decision to ... well, to do the reverse:
I’m closing the Early Access tier and continuing the Gift Link tier instead.

You might wonder: why?

When I launched Early Access, my goal was to offer some meaningful and unique bonus for Patrons. I tried several things like 2K versions, variations, short animations, and posting daily images three days early. But in the end, none of these bonus really pleased me.

About animations and Early Access

Animations were fun at first, but they don’t let me express my style the way NovelAI does. With NovelAI, I can shape an image exactly how I want using advanced workflows, add my own ideas, refine it layer by layer, write custom text…
Even if it sounds strange to say this about AI images, I still feel like I put my own skill and idea into them. During this process I really feel that, well , that I'm crafting my own images

With animations, I don’t have that control. Besides typing the prompt, there’s very little to do. It feels passive and that doesn’t appeal to me once the wow factor start to fade.

Early Access sounded like a good idea at first, but I underestimated the hassle of managing two versions of each post on different dates. I really love publishing something and seeing how it performs right away. Viewing number goes up is my thing lol - MMORPG grind reminiscence I guess.
With early access, I lost that spontaneity and the whole thing started to feel a bit like work. Basically it make publishing content less enjoyable for me.

About Monetization

I’ve said this many times: I didn’t start doing AI work to make money. It was, it still, only a hobby. I already have a daily job that pays my bills so I'm good on that.

I opened a Patreon because I felt it added a bit of legitimacy to "gerhard96". Like a step toward being a "real" content creator. But I always come back to the same idea: that’s not me. All the marketing, the selling points, the "get exclusive content!" stuff… nope. I just want to share the images I make, and I want to share them freely.

What’s Coming Back

This doesn’t mean I’m leaving Patreon. In fact, I’m republishing the Gift Link tier, with a new link to claim access. So everything becomes free again just like in the early months using the link. This means:

• No more early access

• No more animations

• No more ZIP recaps

• Just the regular daily content, posted here at the same time as on Pixiv and DeviantArt

• With the usual benefit of being mosaicless on Patreon

Basically, I’m going back to how things were before monetization.

To Early Access Patrons : Refunds & What You Need to Do

I never cashed out any money, and Patreon allows up to 90 days of refunds.
I have already refunded every Patron for every transaction.

The Early Access tier is now unpublished, but I can’t remove subscribers manually.
So if you’re still in the tier, please cancel your subscription. I’ll continue refunding each renewal until the tier reaches zero members. Once no one is left, I’ll delete it permanently.

While you have your Early Access subscription running you cannot join back the Gift Link tier. You have to cancel it first to do that. I plan to keep supporting the Early Access bonus until 1st December. Then, after the last Recap ZIP you will basically get exactly the same content as the Gift Link tier. But you will get charged and refunded for that.

So, for you Early Access Patrons, there is no point to stay in the Early Access tier. Please cancel your subscription and then switch back to the Gift Link tier by using this link :
https://www.patreon.com/gerhard96/redeem/4CE06

Thank you for understanding. I know this tier didn’t last long, but I prefer ending it now instead of keeping something that doesn’t feel right.

Moving Forward

No more big goals. No complicated tiers. Patreon will simply be a place where I share my work freely and (hopefully) reach more people. I’ll keep going as long as I enjoy creating AI images — or until I get banned, who knows. I might eventually open an X account to reach a wider audience, but I’ll think about that later.

As always, thank you to everyone who follows my work !